


Forgotten by Sunrise

by lothalmoons



Series: Kalluzeb Valentines [4]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Brief Description of Injuries, Drunk Confession, Love Confessions, M/M, Pining, Post-Episode: s03e21-22 Zero Hour, kallus is drunk off pain meds and truth serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 17:25:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18609139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lothalmoons/pseuds/lothalmoons
Summary: Pain meds and truth serum make for a bad combination.(or: Kallus confesses his love for Zeb in the midst of chaos and half-asleep)





	Forgotten by Sunrise

It was early in the morning, the time of day where the sun had yet to rise and everything had gone still as if the galaxy itself was asleep, and Kallus was high off of pain medication and truth serum. Though he had been given some medication to counter his myriad of injuries so that he could sleep, it seemed to have reacted with the small bit of serum still in his system, making the effects of both drugs worse, rendering him unable to collect himself enough to lie down and try to sleep.

When the _Ghost_ had landed on Yavin IV, it was pitch black, truly the dead of the moon’s short night. With dozens of battle-weary Rebels, many of whom in need of medical attention a small ship with minimal supplies could not provide, it was obvious to everyone that no settling in would occur, so each soldier was sent to lick their wounds.

Zeb had stayed by Kallus’ side throughout the whole hyperspace trip to Yavin IV, and when Kallus had collapsed against him, passed out from the sheer pain he had been trying so desperately to downplay, as they entered into their fourth jump, Zeb had been the one to bring him back into consciousness and rush him into the medbay the moment they touched the ground. Whether his quick fall into unconsciousness had been caused by his severe internal bleeding or the paralyzing pain searing from his rebroken leg, the medical droids were unsure, but they did know that Kallus should not, under no uncertain terms, even sit up in the bed he had been gently placed down in.

That didn’t stop the ex-Agent, with a brain blurred by a multitude of drugs, from limping, or rather, hopping, from his bed to the door when the medical droid was treating another patient. Once he made it out into the humid night air, his other leg gave out from sheer exhaustion, and he dropped to the floor, clawing at the air for support. The fall had knocked what wind was left out of him and probably gave him another few bruises that would be lost in dozens that spotted his skin, and he decided - probably the only good decision he made that night - to not try and get up. Instead, he crawled with only his arms and the little strength he had left in them to where the forest seemed to come up and hug the temple ruins of their new base. 

Kallus found a small clearing in the forest to situate himself in, leaning up against one of the tall trees that lined the perimeter. The grass felt dewy and soft under his hands, and he reasoned, with whatever kind of rationale he possessed at that moment, that the outdoors would do him much better than being cooped up in a medbay. Besides, having been stuck on the _Chimera_ for as long as he had, he was in need of a change of scenery - of his choosing. 

At that point, the pain medication had allayed his shooting, agonizing pain to an angry dullness that enveloped his body. At that point as well, the medical droid had realized that Alexsandr Kallus, ex-ISB 021 was missing from his bed. Zeb realized as well, but with much more frustration and spiraling worry, having only been gone for a few moments under the orders of Hera to grab something to eat - or else. Zeb’s mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that Kallus had been taken from his bed by a group of vindictive Rebels looking to take their anger out on a no good Imp, but after seeing a clawed-at area in the dirt just outside the medbay and following the trail of turned up ground spotted with drops of blood, he was able to find Kallus, resting peacefully against a tree, free from any more harm, and calm himself down. 

“Kal!” he called through the darkness to the man who was completely enamored by the grass beneath his fingers. He looked up, and as Zeb got closer, Zeb noted that same feeling of interest showing in Kallus’ eyes as he stared at him as there was when he was staring at the grass.

“What’re you doing?” Zeb asked in the tone he heard Hera take to using when she was at her wit's end, “Why aren’t ya in the medbay?”

“It’s stuffy in there,” he simply replied with no hint he recognized the frustrated tone of Zeb’s voice. Zeb noted at how he was slurring his words. “Beides,” he said, “Out here? I feel better already!” He made a grand gesture with his hand, sweeping it across the area in front of him to indicate to Zeb what he meant by “out here” only to whack his wrist against the nearest tree trunk. He immediately retracted his hand and rubbed his wrist which had already been rubbed raw and bloody from metal cuffs. He traced his finger delicately over the wounds and let out a sharp hiss. “Stars, Thrawn really knows how to torture, huh?” he said with a laugh.

Pity washed over Zeb, and his initial anger was replaced with only sympathy for the battered man. He sat down next to Kallus, close enough to provide Kallus with a warmer, softer support than a tree trunk if he so chose, but more importantly, another body to just talk to. “Can’t sleep, huh?” he asked once he had made himself comfortable.

“No, no. Too many things going on to sleep,” he answered and then pointed to himself, “in here.” 

Zeb wondered when the drugs would wear off enough to allow Kallus to sleep. In hindsight, he should've alerted the medical droids that Kallus had been injected with truth serum, but in the chaos, he had forgotten.

“I didn’t tell them anything though,” Kallus announced loudly. He had been quietly rambling to himself when Zeb got lost in his thoughts and was now getting charged up again. “They forgot that they trained ISB to be able to resist truth serum for a longer time than the average person. Not that I would’ve told them anything anyway. It was too important to me - to the Rebels - to tell them.”

Zeb, even though Kallus was drunk and hardly able to form sentences, believed Kallus. He knew that he would have never told Thrawn anything because when that man believes in something, Zeb knew he would fight to the death for it. 

“You never know when to give up,” Zeb told him with fondness, hoping that his phrase would spark a memory in Kallus’ foggy brain.

Indeed it did, and Zeb thanked Ashla that the stupor of the drugs had not only quelled his physical pain but his mental anguish, for he asked jokingly, “Does that mean I’m a Lasat then?”

Zeb laughed, but then after thinking a moment, realized it did. “I suppose so,” he said, not wanting to be unsure but held back by his trepidation over making such a statement.

There was a comfortable silence as Kallus slid from the tree trunk onto Zeb’s shoulder. He pressed into the warmth of the fur even further as both of them listened to the rustling of the leaves and the distant commotion at base. 

“Thank you for giving me another chance, Zeb,” Kallus said into the fur. His voice, though still considerably slurred and now muffled, sounded as if he were speaking with more clarity. 

“Don’t thank me,” Zeb insisted, wanting to steer the conversation away from anything emotional because of how volatile and fragile Kallus’ state was at that moment.

“No, no!” Kallus argued, “Thank you. Because of you, I’m here now, and being here with you together is...nice.”

“C’mon, Kal don’t gimme that now -”

“But why? I love you.”

The sudden declaration left Zeb stunned, unable to speak. Every emotion in his brain was sent into overdrive, and he couldn’t even formulate words if he wanted to. How badly he longed to hear those words, how desperately he wanted to say them back, but… not here, not now. An overwhelming sense of sadness washed over him as he looked at the broken man lying against him.

It took all of his strength to drag, painfully, the words out of his mouth that he knew he should say, though how he wished he didn’t have to. “C’mon, let’s go back to base,” he said.

He scooped up Kallus’ form with ease, the other unwilling, or probably unable, to get up off the ground himself, and he carried him back to the medbay. The medical droid expressed immense gratitude to Zeb, though he didn’t hear; everything around him was a blur.

He placed Kallus back into his bed and looked down at the grateful, sleepy, glazed eyes that stared up at him with emotions swirling around in there that he couldn’t understand. 

“G’night, Kal. Sleep good, eh?” 

He struggled to hold back the tear that threatened to fall from his eye because he knew that in the morning, what was said tonight would not even be remembered as a dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Who knew I had all these things saved huh?


End file.
